On Friday 27 February, Big Think partner PwC hosted its second global webcast focused on the question, ‘What would you do if you were not afraid?’ The webcast was part of ‘Aspire to Lead: The PwC Women’s...

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We Are Overworked and Going Mad

I personally think that the biggest challenge we face as a society is to find ways to focus on parenting and families. I think we are losing the technologies of social bonding. We are losing the technologies of raising children. We are all so busy. We spend so much time at work. We’re increasingly spending more time at work. And part of the reason we have to spend more time at work is because the economic structures of our society are becoming more and more difficult.

I'm a freelancer. Having to pay for your own healthcare, having no social safety net is I think affecting us to the point of insanity and I think we need to stop and reevaluate what matters. And one of the things that we’ve simply forgotten about is that really the most important task we have as any generation does is to raise the next generation, to pass on the tools for living as sane people to the next generation. And I think I believe that the social fabric of western countries is fraying and it’s partly because there is no longer any time in the world for people to be with one another, to be with their children. And if you do that, if you make time to be with your families, to be with your children, to be with your spouses and your siblings, etc, you often have to do that at the expense of your career, which means you pay a huge economic price.

And in a society where there are eroding social safety nets that’s not even a possibility for people anymore. So I believe we need to stop and look at how we can rebuild the social safety net for everybody that can build in time, particularly for families and children and if we don’t do that I think we are literally going to go mad. I think we’re already going mad.